Where were you, 11/22?

[Beebers]

I'm likely the only old enough on MC to remember. It was a cheerful, sunny afternoon in our second-grade classroom in Connecticut. We were being read a story, having a nice quiet afternoon. A teacher came into the room weeping. She whispered to our teacher and then they told us together. They were literally holding each other up.
We were packed up, buses arrived and we were sent home early. Everyone was a zombie, sleepwalking through the motions of getting us home. The whole process was silent; the bus ride home was completely silent. Our bus driver, a big strong guy, cried quietly all the way, telling each child "Godspeed", as they climbed off at their stop.
It was a Friday so we all were glued to our black-and-white T.V.s all weekend. His funeral was the Monday and we were all kept home for that. It was the very beginning of saturation/live news coverage as you all know it today, that had never happened before. And never again has a President ridden in an open vehicle.
I worry that most young people's entire vessel of knowledge about this is the Oliver Stone film JFK, which is a work of fiction and completely inaccurate.
Too, the 1960's are sometimes idealized. They were in fact a terrible time of unrest and upheavals which this nation had to pass through in order to become a better society.
A very highly-regarded historian sums that day up:
"The conspiracy theories, through modern forensics, have all been disproven. No one wants to think that such an inconsequential person, Oswald, could kill such a consequential person as the President of the United States."

It's forty years ago tomorrow; Kennedy would be 86 if still alive today.

 

[Don'tLiveonMoon]

Yeah, I saw that Peter Jennings special about the Kennedy conspiracies last night. Pretty good. What a weird and sad event. I guess probably the most comparable moment for my generation would be September 11. And there, too, lots of people were watching as it happened. Of course, that *was* a group effort and not just a random person.
Erin

 

[Beebers]

11/22/1963

Yeah, I saw that Peter Jennings special about the Kennedy conspiracies last night. Pretty good. What a weird and sad event. I guess probably the most comparable moment for my generation would be September 11. And there, too, lots of people were watching as it happened. Of course, that *was* a group effort and not just a random person.
Erin

I'm no end pleased that you saw that Jennings piece. It is far and away the clearest accounting of the events and the best debunking effort so far. It will stand as the cornerstone of accuracy now, after decades of murk.
Oliver Stone has fine film-making talents but he is deeply, deeply irresponsible in his influence of young people through that movie.
It was indeed our 9/11 in terms of shock, despair, and fear of the unknown. Unlike 9/11, which set our national resolve against bad guys (a good thing), 11/22/63 plunged us into almost two decades of absolute chaos and uncertainty. But not for nothing. We're such a better country now than we were when I was growing up, because we staggered through those times.

Jackie Kennedy kept that pink suit on "To show the world what they did to Jack." I've always admired her greatly. She never could recall climbing over the back of the limousine but she thought she meant to crawl right off onto the road. She was a class act, start to finish.

 

[Dr. Bombay]

I'm not old enough to remember that day but I've been blessed to read and hear the accounts of others that were. For some reason I get chills when I read about it. I'm sure it was an awful time. I hope to read the memories of those of you who were around at that time.

 

[Smy Guiley]

I'm only 31 but I've seen some great clips of Kennedy. He seemed to have used the media to his advantage, as he appeared to have a natural charisma that made everyone admire him. He seemed easy going and he looked like he really enjoyed being the president.

Nobody likes thinking things like this could happen for no good reason. Things do, though. What about John Lennon? There was no good reason behind that incident at all! (Also.....hmmm....Mark David Chapman.....Lee Harvey Oswald...why do all the lone psycho's go by 3 names? Just wondering...) From what I gathered from the Jennings report last night, it looks like people just want to blame somebody and get some closure, but Oswald was killed before he could really pay for the crime, so now it just hangs there, unfinished. Very sad indeed. It just has to be accepted as a very, very bad thing that happened for no good reason. Stone has a problem with telling stories in his own way and falling back on "Artistic License", like in The Doors. They don't come off very nicely in that, either, and once again, it's the only thing young people can see as so called "fact".

later
eric

 

[Beebers]

Oh, good letter, Smy.

Kennedy had an unparallelled personal charisma. He is called the first Television President in that his command of that still-new medium was so effortless and persuasive that he was the first whose election was very likely swung by that. He didn't win by a very wide margin. But thank whomever that we didn't get Nixon that year. Unfortunately we did get him later.
Kennedy also represented a time of hope that is hard to convey to those who weren't here at that time. We lived in a time when you would never ever see a black face on television except when they were being fire-hosed on the streets, nearly purposely being impaled by the American flag or beaten back by snarling German Shepherd police dogs. VietNam was in its infancy ready to grow, women were still not viewed as equal participants in anything. So much, so much. Kennedy represented the hope and faith that we could change and become better people. And we did. It just took a very long time and a lot of trauma.
We'll never know what kind of President he would have developed into, but conventional wisdom says he would have been quite great, and perhaps our social miseries and the war much less prolonged. Three years is never enough to judge a President by unless he's outright awful, then we just turn them out of office and be done with it.
And then, Bobby Kennedy finally gets brave enough to run, hopes went up again and he's shot too, right after Martin King. It was all like a neverending bad dream.
AOL news has an outstanding 1 minute movie covering that day, I urge everyone to look at it. It's extremely moving and made me cry, just like 1963. It conveys the day perfectly.
The Doors, yes, that movie, too.

 

[Don'tLiveonMoon]

(Also.....hmmm....Mark David Chapman.....Lee Harvey Oswald...why do all the lone psycho's go by 3 names? Just wondering...)

Not to mention John Wilkes Booth.
Erin

 

[Don'tLiveonMoon]

I'm no end pleased that you saw that Jennings piece. It is far and away the clearest accounting of the events and the best debunking effort so far. It will stand as the cornerstone of accuracy now, after decades of murk.
Oliver Stone has fine film-making talents but he is deeply, deeply irresponsible in his influence of young people through that movie.
It was indeed our 9/11 in terms of shock, despair, and fear of the unknown. Unlike 9/11, which set our national resolve against bad guys (a good thing), 11/22/63 plunged us into almost two decades of absolute chaos and uncertainty. But not for nothing. We're such a better country now than we were when I was growing up, because we staggered through those times.

Jackie Kennedy kept that pink suit on "To show the world what they did to Jack." I've always admired her greatly. She never could recall climbing over the back of the limousine but she thought she meant to crawl right off onto the road. She was a class act, start to finish.

Yes, I thought the special was very well done. My dad was complaining about Oliver Stone and the way he distorted the truth in his movie, especially since that's what so many people, younger people especially, think is what happened as a result. I agree, though, it is hard to come to grips with the idea that someone as important as him died for nothing.
Erin

 

[Super Scooter]

I can't even watch news programs like that after September 11th. It's too hard. I can't watch or listen to the news anymore. I sat through three days of watching those plane crashes over and over and over. I admire my parents, though. They sat through September eleventh, and my Dad is old enough to remember a little bit of JFK, though he was only 4 or 5. My grandfather's been through so much more, though, as I'm sure many of your grandparents have. My grandfather fought in World War II, at my age (16), using his brother's ID. They were both R. Spinney, and named my Uncle R. Spinney to help him avoid the draft. lol. He was around for (though wasn't there) Pearl Harbor, the JFK assasination, and now September 11th. He doesn't much care to talk about any of them. I think he said he was stationed near/around where the movie South Pacific takes place.

I always wondered why we're told we're supposed to remember stuff like this. It seems like it'd be more upsetting and build up hatred rather than simply honoring those who suffered. Of course, I think those people should be honored, but I also think the actual tragedy should be forgotten, and just those affected by it taken into consideration. It'd help, I should think.

Well, that's just the way I feel.

 

[Don'tLiveonMoon]

I can't even watch news programs like that after September 11th. It's too hard. I can't watch or listen to the news anymore.

I know what you mean. I can't stand watching the news either.
Erin